MMBN: Zero and the Other Dark Chip Syndicate
by ZekeSword
Summary: MMBN5 AU.  A young man comes to Electopia running away from something deadly, what is this Zero and how have the Dark Chip survive?  ...Or did it?  LanxMaylu and Megaman.EXExRoll.EXE, implied AU-Zero.EXExAU-Iris.EXE and implied OCxOC.  Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! I'm ZekeSword and this is my first story on FanFiction and I hope that this is good!

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

So let's get on with it shall we?

* * *

A young man, about the age of 16, walked down a suburban street with the intent of forced leisure. This man had white jeans, red shoes with black decals, and a bright red sweatshirt with the collar popped up that left a black T-shirt visible. His short blond hair whose bangs slightly curve onto cobalt blue eyes that mislead strangers to think he was somewhat innocent. The man groaned with apparent discontent.

"This doesn't feel natural as much as I need it…" grumbled the man. A semi-deep and semi-gruff voice piped up from his hip.

"Can't say I blame you… but you do need it Zeke." Zeke took out his PET, where the voice originated from, from its holster and held it up at a comfortable level to look down to every so often.

"I know Zero… but I just can't shake these feelings…" Zeke complained. Zero was Zeke's NetNavi. Zero had bright red gloves and boots, yellow rimmed the tops of them with a small, curved yellow spike at the joints. Zero's torso included a black jumpsuit with a red chest plate with a green X-like pattern going toward the center of his chest, which is where his Navi symbol laid. The symbol had a green background with a blue quadrilateral pointing upwards, and a red quadrilateral pointing downwards, where the quadrilaterals overlapped appeared yellow diamond-like patterns. His helmet was black with a red V-shaped armor that rose above about three centimeters, which went straight back and flying off the helmet. The sides of the helmet entailed yellow plates similar to that of the red V-shaped armor plate, attaching to his cheeks and flying straight back and off the helmet. Perfectly in the crook of the V a green gem-like triangular pyramid laid. He also had a human face with green eyes that showed reason and emotion.

"I know Zeke… you miss Irene a lot don't you?" Zero sympathized.

"Not just her, I miss Alex too…" Zeke replied, "We went to him and Axl when we rebelled with Felix and Fenfir and we barely got away from him…"

"Indeed… but he did manage to separate us… and deleted Fenfir—"Zero began.

"—and killed Felix…" Zeke cut in, remembering the loss of his friend during the rebellion. Zero tried to lighten his Operator's pain.

"Zeke, we don't know where we would've been if they hadn't bought us the time to escape," Zero said.

"Yeah…" Zeke sighed, "very true… very true…" Zeke decided to change the subject, "Zero? Where are we again?"

Zero replied, "We are at an Electopian suburb…" Zero paused, retrieving the name from his memory banks, "Its name is DenTech City I believe…"

"Mmk," Zeke acknowledged Zero, "…Zero?"

"Yes Zeke?"

"…Do you think Irene likes me?" Zeke asked Zero this question multiple times with uncertainty before, not as much vice versa.

"I don't know," came Zero's usual reply to the question, "just like I know you don't know if Iris likes me…" this part of the response was unusual, most likely sparked out of boredom.

"Amen to that…" Zeke concurred disheartened.

"We'll find them Zeke…" Zero consoled Zeke, "and I'm sure we'll have our answer…"

"That's the thing…" Zeke said in a very emotional tone now, "what if the answer is 'No'?" Zero shook his head at his Operator's doubt.

"We'll deal with it when the time comes," Zero replied with a logical tone. Zeke and Zero have made such a team with this logical versus emotional mindset. Zeke can be very emotional, but can think logically when the situation is serious enough. Zero is the opposite, with a very logical mindset, but can get emotional himself with a serious situation at hand. This 'Yin and Yang' format of the mindsets of the Operator and the Navi allow almost perfect synchronization in battle. Zeke sighed.

"You're right… let's go meet some people then…" Zeke suggested. It was now Zero's turn to feel doubtful.

"Umm… how exactly are we going to do that?" Zero questioned. Zeke put some thought into this.

"Err… find lodging and schooling?" Zeke offered, hoping that would be feasible to achieve. Zero took a moment to think.

Zero replied, "That isn't such a bad idea… we'll have to come up with a story though, which I'll fabricate one." Zeke smiled upon hearing this.

Zeke beamed, "Thanks Zero! What'll I do without you?"

"To be honest," Zero spoke up, "really nothing." Zero couldn't help but have a giggle fest at his own joke. Zeke had a brief laughing fit, knowing how true that statement actually was. Zeke looked up to see two men about Zeke's age walking ahead of him, laughing and apparently talking about something that excited them. One was slightly taller than and twice as wide as the other man. This man had black basketball shorts with green and yellow stripes on the sides, as well as a green T-shirt, and green shoes. He was bald except for a nearly invisible spike, apparently towards the front of his head. The other man had black jeans, a white long sleeve, and a royal blue vest and shoes. He had messy brown hair with a sky blue bandana apparently keeping his hair from being too messy. Zeke cocked his head to the side, as if contemplating an action.

_Hmm… wonder if we could try meeting those guys?_ Zeke thought to himself. Zero caught onto Zeke's suddenly curious look.

"Hey, Zeke! What's with the face?" Zero inquired. Zeke looked down at his Navi, caught off guard for being absorbed in contemplating.

"Oh!" Zeke started, "there's these two guys walking ahead of us that look like they're having, or going to have fun. You think we could try to tag along?" Zero just shrugged.

"Probably a good chance to see some Electopian battlers," Zero reasoned, "however… how will you approach them is really your call, I have no clue when it comes to that, and even if I did, it'd still be your call."

"Alright, I'll try to talk to them…" Zeke decided. Zero decided to give Zeke what he actually wanted anyway, since he was thinking about it.

"Try talking about something that deals with what most people would know about, like net-battling." Zero suggested. He knew Zeke had some issues with attempting to befriend strangers, so he decided to give that piece of advice just in case if Zeke messed up. Zeke nodded to acknowledge the advice. He then slipped his PET into its holster and ran up to the two men in and attempted to call out in a casual tone.

"Yo! Hey you two!" Zeke called, "Mind having a tag-along? I'm REALLY bored and I'm itching for some net-battling!" The two men turned to see who called out to them. The bigger man had slight distain for a second then smiled. The one with the bandana had an indifferent look on his face for a second, and then smiled as well.

"You wanna net-battle?" the bigger man challenged, "My buddy and I were just going to a friend's place where we normally net-battle! We won't mind having a new face coming," he took out his PET, "Right Gutsman?" A deep voice erupted from the PET.

"Oh yeah! Guts! New people always fun net-battle with! Guts! Maybe we'll win against this guy Dex! Guts!" Gutsman replied. Dex turned his attention to the man with the bandana.

"What about you Lan?" Dex asked.

Lan replied, "I'm sure Yai would like a new face every once in a while! And I'd like a new face to battle too!" Lan also slipped out his PET, "What do you think Megaman?"

"You read my mind," Megaman replied, "Net-battling friends is fun, but what's even more fun is net-battling strangers who would become friends! That's how we got our circle of friends in the first place."

"Thank you dudes!" Zeke gleamed, "My name is Zeke..." he pulled out his PET, "…and this is my Navi, Zero!"

Zero introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Zero, nice to meet you."

"C'mon! Let's get rockin'!" Dex yelled, and he, Lan, and Zeke s hooked their PETs back onto their holsters and ran, Zeke following where Lan and Dex were going.

_This'll surely be cool!_ Zeke thought, _Can't wait til I meet these guys' 'circle of friends'!_

_

* * *

_

And here we have the first chapeter! Read and Review would be appriciated! I have the second chapter in progress, but I think at the latest it will be up in a week or so. What I intend is the following: Net-Battles, love, and a..._nasty _surprise! Stay tuned! :D


	2. Chapter 2

Hello! I got this one done faster than I thought, and it's even longer than the last one! Epicness much? XD

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Yeeaah! Let's get on with it now!

* * *

Zeke, Dex, and Lan ran toward a very large mansion, imposingly so to Zeke. They slowed to a walk and walked up to the door.

"Whoa…" Zeke gawked, "Didn't think a suburb would have a mansion…" Dex grinned at Zeke's statement.

"That's because the president of Gabcom's daughter lives here!" he shouted like it was as blantent as the sky is blue.

"Dex, that's enough," Lan disciplined Dex and rang the doorbell. The door swung open to reveal a short girl, about 14 years old, with a bright yellow dress going down to her knees, and brown buckle-shoes. Her brown eyes had a strange mixture with her blonde hair into a pony tail and a large forehead to top it all off. She was apparently spoiled and bratty, but Zeke didn't mind much as she had every right to be bratty and spoiled as the apparent daughter of Gabcom. "Hi, Yai!" Lan greeted Yai, "We have a new guy who wants to net-battle! His name's Zeke."

"Hello," Zeke greeted his hostess.

"Hello," Yai returned the greetings, "So you wanna net-battle Zeke?"

"Y-yes!" Zeke responded, stuttering with excitement. Yai smiled.

"Well then," she began, "let's go to the back, Maylu and Tory are waiting for us."

"Okay!" Zeke shouted, excitement overtaking him. Zero sighed and shrugged as the group of four went to a treehouse in the backyard. Zeke was impressed as well as excited. He was quickly greeted by a girl and a boy no older than himself.

"Hi!" the girl greeted Zeke, "My name is Maylu!" Maylu, in Zeke's opinion, was very attractive to the point she reminded him of Irene for a second. Maylu had pink boots that went halfway up her legs, black knee-high socks, a short pink skirt, a black long-sleeved shirt with a red vest that had a pink stripe going down the middle. Her hair was a crimson red that went down to her shoulders and had a pink pin in it with a yellow indent, ending with her chocolate eyes that matched Lan's.

"Hello," the boy greeted Zeke now, "I'm Tory, nice to meet you." Tory had white shoes with some teal decals, blue jeans, a teal hooded sweater that showed a white T-shirt underneath. His eyes and hair were in harmony with chocolate brown like Lan.

"Hello, I'm Zeke, nice to meet you all," Zeke returned the greetings. Lan gave Zeke a suspicious look.

"Maylu's my woman you hear me?" Lan whispered threateningly to Zeke. Zeke's eyes went wide and jumped back in fear.

"O-okay!" Zeke stammered, "I-I'll keep th-that in mind!"

"Lan…" Maylu groaned, "please don't do that…we all know that's not you, so please stop…"

"Aww… I was just messing with him! I was also just letting him know about us that's all." Lan justified his action.

"I-It's fine, really, there's another girl who's already the apple of my eye." Zeke said, attempting to quell the situation. The five friends looked at their tag-along with peaked intrest.

"Really?" Dex was the first on to speak up, "Where is she then?" Zeke looked down, his hair covering the sadness in his eyes, as a reaction to the question, "Well?"

"I…" Zeke began, "I don't know where she is, or if she likes me back…" There was a long and awkward pause as Zeke's words hung in the air.

"Oh…" Dex broke the silence, acknowlaging Zeke's response. He jacked Gutsman into the server, as did Lan and Zeke with Megaman and Zero.

[Cyberworld]

Gutsman, Megaman, and Zero appear in the server after digitized teleportation. There laid a tall, brown-hued Navi, a pink-hued Navi with curved yellow antennae, and a short, teal-hued Navi.

"Mega!" Roll shouted as she tackle-hugged him, apparently Megaman and Roll were just as together as their Operators were. Zero chuckled at the sight. Megaman sneered at Zero in a playful, mischievous manner.

"Zerooo!" Megaman cooed, "I just happen to be the strongest Navi here, so if you just happen to get fresh with my Roll…" Zero burst into a laughing fit.

"Woooow Megaman!" Zero shot back, "You practically JUST heard Zeke mention he already had someone on his mind, you didn't think I had one too?" Megaman was taken aback by Zero's response, much unlike his Operator.

"In that case I'll take it she's the Navi of whoever your Operator likes," Megaman stated, returning to his normal self, "And you don't know where she is, yes?" Zero looked down, his helmet covering his depressed eyes.

"That would be correct…" Zero confirmed, with the sound of a lump in his throat.

"Oh…" Megaman sympathized and dropped the charade. Roll immediately shot off on the subject.

"Aaaawwwww~!" Roll cried, "Do we have a case of unrequited love?"

"Miss Roll, I don't believe that's how we should treat a guest…" Glyde said, excrisising politeness as Yai's butler-like Navi. Roll simply ignored Glyde.

"I think we do~!" Roll continued, "We—"

"—Roll," Megaman cut in, "please… let's not give Zero a hard time." Roll looked at Megaman and surrendered.

"Alright Mega…" was all she could say. Glyde stepped up.

"How about we have a Net-battle tournament right here?" Glyde suggested, "I could set up the match-ups."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Megaman agreed, "I'll bet Zero and I will be in the final round."

"NO! GUTS!" Gutsman shouted in disagreement, "It will be GUTSMAN and you! GUTS!"

"Doubt it," Iceman said.

"Well, let's organize the brackets then," Glyde said as he randomized codes in his head. "Our first battle will be between Miss Roll and Mister Iceman!"

[Real World]

"Okay Tory!" Maylu said, "I'm not going to go easy on you, you know that right?"

"Of course! I won't be going easy on you either! Whether if your Lan's girlfriend or not!" The battle proceeded, and was a near-stalemate until a cleaver move from Iceman forced Roll to logout. Zero watched this battle with interest, analyzing both of their techniques to save for when he battled either of them.

"Well, we did our best," Maylu said as she sat on a bench by the wall next to Lan. Glyde organized the next battle as Tory also sat down, on a bench on the opposing side as Maylu and Lan. Glyde appeared on the viewscreen that displayed the matchup just moments before.

"The next matchup will be between myself and Zero," Glyde reported. Yai and Zeke took their positions. The battle wasn't as intense as the one before, and Zero forced Glyde to logout by sheer use of Sword-type chips. Zeke got interested in the HeroSword chip that Yai used to battle Zero with.

"Hey Yai? Mind trading BattleChips?" Zeke asked. Yai shrugged.

"You want that HeroSword chip right?" Yai said, knowing that's what Zeke wanted.

"Yeah," Zeke replied, "I have a SuperVulcan" chip that I NEVER use, so is that an acceptable trade?"

"Sure," Yai accepted the trade, and Zeke gave Yai his SuperVulcan chip, and Yai gave Zeke her HeroSword chip. Glyde appeared on the viewscreen and announced the next battle.

"The next battle will be between Megaman and Gutsman." Glyde announced; Lan and Dex stepped up and said their pre-battle taunts. As usual, Megaman dominated the battle and Gutsman had no say in how the battle played out. Zero paid attention to Megaman's techniques, readying himself for the best Net-battler of the bunch. Glyde again, announced the next battle.

[Elsewhere]

A man dressed in nearly all black in a dark room in front of a huge computer. The man cackled as he typed.

"Muahahahahah! At last, my creation is nearly complete! A loyal version of the leader of that stupid rebellion. No need to re-create the bane of Sigma when he sacrificed himself to do it… Re-creating Delta should suffice… Hahahahahahahah!" The cyberworld that the screen displayed became filled to the brim with DarkChips. The man then jacked in the programming of a Navi into the computer, and activated all the DarkChips, consuming the Navi inside. When the DarkChips dissolved into the Navi, its figure appeared, mirroring that of Zero's, except a darker red armor, silver in place of yellow, and purple crystal and eyes of evil.

"Ahahaha! It's complete! I shall call you 'Omega'!" the man cackled, "Together, Zero will be deleted, and I, the Duke of the DarkChip, will RULE!"

"What the heck is all this you're talking about?" 'Omega' retorted, "I don't want any part of your little scheme! I don't even like the name you've given me!"

"Oh come now Omega, you'll HAVE to serve me, for I supply the DarkPower and you can't really escape from here."

"Oh really?" 'Omega' challenged.

"Those walls can hold back Alpha AND TWO Gospel beasts! You can't POSSIBLY destroy them!"

"I believe, I can," 'Omega' shot back, "and my name is 'Zeta'!" Zeta created an aura of DarkPower around him, charging some attack. The man stumbled back in fear of his own creation.

"B-but I created you!" the man protested, but Zeta ignored him.

"CYBER DELETION!" Zeta yelled, and released his attack in a powerful energy-repulsing attack that broke down the walls of the cyberworld and destabilized the building in the real world. Zeta quickly escaped through a hole in the wall.

_I have created…a monster… _was the man's last words before the building crumbled, and the cyberworld there, disintegrated.

[Yai's mansion]

"The next battle will be between Zero and Iceman, the winner will battle Megaman," Glyde announced. It didn't take long for Zero to defeat Iceman, especially since he abused his ElecBlade BattleChip. Megaman jacked in soon after Iceman logged out, and it was on. It was a very long and drawn-out battle. It would have been called a stalemate after about ten minutes or so. Suddenly, in the middle of the battle, alarms blared.

"There seems to be a virus attack, and they've already broken through all of the firewalls!" Glyde reported.

"What!" Lan shouted in disbelief, "Zeke, let's check it out!" Zeke nodded and Megaman and Zero disappeared from the battlefield to the main server of the cyberworld at Yai's mansion.

[Cyberworld]

Megaman and Zero came face-to-face with a horde of purple Zeros with black swords brandished, and black crystals and eyes. Zero growled at the sight.

"Ugh…worthless copies," Zero spat, and brandished his green ZeroSword, which retained the the yellow ring, the sword was supported by red siding and compressed by a yellow cylander and cone off-shooting from the yellow ring. Zero ran forward to the horde and slashed a virus several times before the virus was deleted.

"Whoa, a little stronger than normal viruses huh?" Megaman commented as he shot a virus with his MegaBuster, only to have the virus deflect the shots with its sword. "Dang! That's not working!"

"They're copies of me," Zero explained, "They're no slouches to those who are…not me."

"Well that helps, why don't we delete them all in one shot?" Megaman suggested.

"Not such a bad idea," Zero agreed. "Zeke! I need a ProgramAdvance!"

"Me too Lan!" Megaman called.

"Alright!" Lan shouted and downloaded to Megaman a Cannon, Hi-Cannon, and M-Cannon BattleChips to create the ZetaCannon.

"Roger!" Zeke acknowlaged Zero and downloaded a Sword, WideSword, and LongSword BattleChips to create the LifeSword. Megaman and Zero both struck powerufully and left no virus not deleted. Megaman and Zero logged out soon after.

[Real world]

Lan and Zeke returned to the rest of the group, Lan sat with Maylu, while Zeke sat by himself. Zeke got the impression that he had some explaining to do. He looked down at his PET, and Zero nodded, signifying Zeke's impression to be true. Zeke sighed.

"So where are you from?" Yai began her interrogation, "Where do you go to school? Why are you here?"

"I'll explain everything," Zeke cut Yai off, "I'll have to sooner or later."

"It'll be okay Zeke," Zero comforted Zeke, "just go up until you're going to bawl, then stop."

"Bawl?" Lan asked with genuine concern.

"You see… Zero was once… a Darkloid…" Zeke confessed, shocking everyone in the room.

* * *

O.O "WHAT!" is what everyone's thinking yes? Multiple plot twists FTW! I don't have a time-table for the next chapter, but I'll be safe and say it'll take a week at the most, hopefully. Next chapter: Zeke's explanation, tears, and...NATIONAL FREE CURRY DAY!


	3. Chapter 3

Dang, I must either be really bored or I have a lot of time on my hands and I give myself WAAAAY too much time! XD Well, here's tha third chapitar!

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Now... let there be, STORIES!

* * *

The entire room had hit dead silence as Zeke's words hung in the air. Lan, being the most shocked out of all of them, who had seen the very evil the Darkloids have done, spoke up first.

"Wh…what? Run that by me again?" Lan asked, not believing his own ears.

"I think Zero should explain from here," Zeke suggested, as he jacked Zero into the server, and Zero appeared on the viewscreen.

"As Zeke said, I was a Darkloid," Zero began, "Me, and another fellow, Fenfir, were Darkloids serving a lead Darkloid and the Duke of Darkness…" he paused, apparently disgusted at what he'll say next, "…I was ordered to delete a mass number of Navis, not just security Navis, but all custom civilian Navis that got in our way… I had a different name at the time. My Darkloid name was Delta, and Fenfir's was Lambda. The lead Darkloid's name was Sigma. However, this changed when I met a certain Navi named Iris… she was a lovely girl…" he paused again, to collect his thoughts, "…and you could say…love overpowers darkness…"

"At the same time," Zeke added, "I fell in love with Iris's NetOp, Irene, and that's how Zero and I met…through Iris and Irene… Fenfir had originally belonged to my friend, Felix, who led me to be aware of Darkloids. Zero and I became friends through Iris and Irene."

"This was how I was able to purge myself of the DarkPower," Zero continued, "Fenfir did the same, and we rebelled. It was not a pretty sight…"

"We sought help from another friend of mine, Alex and his Navi Axl, who helped us escape from the iron fist of the Duke of Darkness," Zeke input, "and even with his help, we didn't escape without casualties… Irene and Iris also wanted to help us…"

"Fenfir and Felix lost their lives to delete Sigma, and allowed the rest of us to escape," Zero explained, "though even then, the Duke of Darkness found a way to separate all of us… and here we are now."

"And during all that…" Zeke concluded, "N-neither Zero or I know if the girls we like…like us back…" Zeke's eyes started to water and Zero sighed. The group was shocked to hear such a story. "I…I really want to find her…but I don't know where to start…"

"Easy tiger," Zero stopped Zeke, "We've said enough." Zeke nodded and used his forearm to wipe his eyes. Lan spoke up.

"Umm… so what are you going to do here since you really have no priorities?"

"I'm going to try to get in to a school here and find a place to live," Zeke replied, "Zero's going to get me into a school, but I don't know where I'm going to live…"

"I'm sure we all got some extra space in our houses for one more person," Dex said optimistically.

"Hey, why don't I take you in?" Lan suggested, "I think there's an extra room and we might be able to get you a computer too, or Yai could get one."

"Thanks Lan," Zeke said, "It is getting kind of late, Zero, you should get started on that school business."

"Roger that," Zero replied as Zeke jacked him out.

"Okay, see you later everyone!" Lan shouted his goodbye as he left with Maylu and Zeke, while Dex and Tory went separate ways.

"Umm, I'll go on ahead…" Zeke said, "the blue-roofed house yes?"

"Uhh, yeah…why?" Lan spoke in an uncertain tone.

"Oh, I just want to leave you two alone for your boyfriend/girlfriend stuff, so I'll just introduce myself and everything so you don't have to worry," Zeke explained and took off to Lan's house, and explained himself to Lan's mother.

"Umm, what's his problem?" Lan asked.

"I think he's just being considerate of the relationship you and Maylu have, I'm sure Zero would've done the same thing if it were me and Roll." Megaman guessed.

"I agree Lan…" Maylu said, concurring with Megaman.

"In other words," Roll added, "he's being polite in a way."

"Um, okay…I guess," Lan said, and after Lan and Maylu said their 'goodbyes', Lan went to his house and found Zeke making himself comfortable on the couch. "Comfy?" he asked Zeke.

"Yes," Zeke replied, "your mom told me to make myself at home, so I did just that."

"Guess I could get along with you then," Lan said, "Like the room?"

"I really don't care about the room, all I'm gonna be doing is sleeping and doing homework that's it, and that room lets me do just that," Zeke said. Lan chuckled at this.

"Well it is late, so why don't we turn in?" Lan suggested.

"Why not?" Zeke said, and Lan and Zeke went to bed.

[The next morning]

The time is 8:00AM, Saturday morning, and it was quiet all through the house just before loud shouts came from Lan's room.

"YAAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!" Lan shouted and raced around to dress, "I'M-GONNA-EAT-LOTS-OF-YUMMY-FREE-CURRY!" An equally loud voice erupted from Zeke's room.

"CAN'T YOU QUIET IT DOWN!" Zeke yelled, "SOME PEOPLE WERE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Zeke stepped out of his room as Lan zipped right by him yelling to his mom about not having breakfast.

_Not having breakfast?_ Zeke thought, _What kind of idiot wakes up THIS early and DOESN'T eat breakfast?_ Zeke heard the sigh of Lan's mom. "Morning Missus Hikari."

"Good morning Zeke… at least you have decency today…" Mrs. Hikari said, "Lan's always like this every year…"

"Huh? What's so special about today?" Zeke inquired, though he may have wished he hadn't.

"Today's National Free Curry Day, Lan's favorite holiday…" Mrs. Hikari explained.

"That explains a lot of things," Zeke said, "the dude's stomach is bigger than his brain and heart combined!"

"Well… do you want breakfast at least?" Mrs. Hikari asked. Zeke shrugged.

"Guess I'll be the 'smart' boy around here and actually eat breakfast, might as well since I'm up," Zeke said. Mrs. Hikari cooked some pancakes while Zeke went to his room to get dressed. "Zero, you finished yet? I do have something for you to do."

"I just finished when 'you-know-who' rang all five bullhorns," Zero replied, "What's up?"

"'You-know-who' just ran out of the house screaming curry," Zeke explained, "I want you to go ahead and find him so that I could get to wherever he is easier and make sure he's not getting himself into problems."

"Roger, count on me," Zero said as he went into the internet. Zeke finished getting dressed, and came out to find the pancakes ready to eat. Zeke ate them moderately and thanked Mrs. Hikari for the meal and headed out.

"Zero, report," Zeke commanded.

"He's not too far from here actually, just a few miles," Zero reported, Zeke nodded and followed the directions Zero provided, finding Maylu in the process. "Oh, hey Maylu."

"Hey Zeke…" Maylu greeted Zeke in a displeased tone. Zeke picked up on this right away.

"Lan?" Zeke asked, and Maylu nodded.

"I figured as much, he woke the whole house up," Zeke said.

"More like the whole street…" Maylu joked, but still retained the displeased tone.

"Whatever, let's find the dumb kid and check if he didn't burn himself," Zeke suggested, with a joke attached, secretly hoping that Lan did burn himself on too much curry. Sure enough, right when Zeke and Maylu reached the restaurant selling the curry a flamethrower exploded from Lan's mouth. Maylu giggled at Lan's stupidity and the flamethrower incident.

"Hey! Lan used Fire _FACE_!" Zeke severely joked, "Fire-breathing Lan dragon much?" Maylu had a laughing fit at the jokes Zeke yanked out on Lan. Lan growled at Zeke.

"Shut up!" Lan shouted, "And what the heck are you doing with MY Maylu!" Zeke chuckled and took several steps away from Maylu.

"Why my good sir, nothing at all!" Zeke replied.

"C'mon now, you were alone with her weren't you!" Lan challenged, "You're not planning on stealing my girl are you!" Zeke picked up that Lan was being serious.

"Dude, she's yours and I don't have any plans on taking her," Zeke shot back.

"Nah, I can tell, you like her don't you?" Lan continued challenging.

"Quit it Lan!" Zeke shouted, "I don't like her!" All Maylu could do was sit at a booth, about a yard away and watch the showdown occur.

"I saw you make her laugh!" Lan pointed out.

"I was blasting at your stupidity with the freaking curry!" Zeke defended. The argument lasted for about five minutes until a pan flew out of the kitchen and landed right in between Lan and Zeke, abrupting ending the argument. "Umm…okay?"

"What's this doing here?" Lan asked as a worker flew out of the kitchen to grab the pan, knocking Lan over in the process. Zeke and Maylu both had a laughing fit upon seeing this.

[Cyberworld]

"Had to do something about those two…" Roll said coming back from the oven computer.

"Good call, I wouldn't want to see a fist-fight between those two," Megaman said.

"Same here," concurred Zero, and smiled, _I think we'll like it here… hope this virus crap isn't all too serious..._

[Elsewhere]

Zeta stood at a secluded area of DenTech Area 3, looking at the purple swordsman viruses attacking everything and everyone.

_So I'll have to absorb them to destroy the Net huh? _Zeta thought and chuckled. He dashed up to several viruses, absorbing them by the grab. Within fifteen minutes he absorbed all the viruses and began to laugh, then digitally transported out.

* * *

And there it is! MASSIVE comic relief FTW! Since I apparently give myself way too much time, perhaps the next one's going to be up by Sunday maybe Monday? Next chapter: Viruses, encounters of the dark kind, and lost friends!


	4. Chapter 4

Ugh, forgive me for not reaching my deadline in time... x.x Either I give myself too much time or not enough, just my luck. Guess I shouldn't post scheduling, that might be wise XD

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Now that all the crappy stuff is outta the way, let's get the show on the road!

* * *

A few days after National Free Curry Day, Zeke became the new student of Lan's class at DenTech High, and the entire group minus Tory, due to his job at the waterworks, is in the same class as Lan and Zeke. Lan finally dropped the suspicious act on Zeke. Zeke and Zero are fitting into the group very well, almost like a more well-mannered, less reckless, and more caring about academics version of Lan, for Zeke, and a fusion of Protoman and Megaman for Zero. The group are having lunch when Dex started making challenges to Zeke and Lan.

"I'll definitely win this time!" Dex shouted.

"Alright Dex," Lan said, "in your dreams."

"Indeed," Zeke concurred. Maylu and Yai giggled at Dex's determination to keep losing.

"Oh yeah? Let's meet after school then!" Dex challenged. A serious one, but still signaled a laughing fit from the rest of the group. After the rest of the average school day, the group met at Yai's mansion again to have more Net-battles. Dex became as overconfident as to challenge both Lan and Zeke at the same time.

"Are you mad?" Zeke scoffed, "We'll wreak you!"

"Nuh-uh! I'm gonna win this for sure and I'll rub it in your faces when I do!" Dex returned.

"I'll hold you to that," Zeke warned. The battle didn't last longer than three minutes, and Gutsman was forced to logout. "What did I tell ya? We wreaked you!"

"Gaaaahh! I'll beat you guys one of these days…" Dex said. Glyde suddenly emerged on the viewscreen.

"Glyde!" Yai shouted, astonished noticing Glyde's worried expression, "What's going on!"

"Miss Yai, the same viruses that attacked the server not too long ago are now all over the DenTech Area!" Glyde reported.

"What!" Zero shouted, surprised and angered by the news.

"Zero, you should be able to get to the DenTech Area from there! Intercept and engage the viruses!" Zeke commanded.

"Roger!" Zero acknowlaged and transferred to the Net.

"Megaman! You go too!" Lan said. Megaman nodded and followed Zero. The two Navis reached the DenTech Area to meet the purple swordsman viruses.

[Cyberworld]

"Ugh, atrocious replicas…" Zero groaned, "Zeke! There's too many of them, give me a FormPower!"

"Wha?" was all Megaman could say.

"Roger, FormPower chip in! Aqua Form! Download!" Zeke called as he inserted a chip into the PET. Zero's red armor suddenly had white energy wrapping around it, and his crystal started to glow white. The armor turned into a blue-violet color as the crystal turned into a bright cyan color.

"Whoa…" Megaman gawked.

"We got some good power ups too!" Lan challenged, "Megaman! DoubleSoul Chip coming your way!"

"Got it Lan!" Megaman acknowlaged.

"DoubleSoul Chip in! Wood Soul! Download!" Lan called as he inserted a chip into his PET. Megaman's armor transformed into a barrel-like attire.

"Wood Tower!" Megaman shouted as he brought down his fists to the ground, causing wooden lances to arise out of the ground and impale many of the viruses, deleting them instantly.

"Not bad," Zero commented as he used the wooden lances to jump across to the next set of viruses. "Whirlpool Slash!" he called, brandishing two Aqua ZeroSwords, similar format in coloration as his normal ZeroSword, but in a WideSword shape, and the color scheme of his Aqua Form. Zero dashed up to the group of viruses in front of him and spun quickly and moved forward like a top, and crashed through the group of viruses, deleting them. Megaman and Zero were about to take out the remaining stragglers, only to witness their quick ends not by their hands. The Navi that stood in their path looked a lot like Zero, but much darker and a purple jewel laid where Zero's green jewel would normally. Zero's and Megaman's transformations wore off. The Navi chuckled evilly.

"What's so funny, fake?" Zero inquired coldly. The Navi stopped chuckling to answer.

"Fake, such a hilarious term to use for me…" the Navi replied with a shady tone, "More like… who you hate the most, who you are now hates who you have been…" Zero growled at the statement.

"Delta is dead, he was deleted when he was purged," Zero defended. 'Delta' simply laughed evilly, which is quickly becoming signature to him.

"First I was called 'Omega', now I'm being called 'Delta'…stupid," 'Delta' said coldly, "My name is Zeta, the apparent recreation of 'Delta', labeled 'Omega', and your worst nightmare!" Zero cringed tightly at this. Megaman was utterly confused.

"S-so are you the one that caused the virus attack?" Megaman asked. Zeta shifted his attention to Megaman.

"Unintentionally," Zeta replied flatly, "You could say I'm cleaning up my viral mess, only to do what they'd do, only a heck of a lot faster!" Zeta laughed maniacally.

"You won't succeed," Zero said flatly.

"We won't let you!" Megaman challenged, brandishing his MegaBuster and took aim. Zeta just smirked and dashed right past them, apparently slashing the both of them and Zeta disappeared before either Megaman or Zero could react. Zero fell to a knee while Megaman fell in pain.

"…He's strong…" Zero managed to comment.

"Very…" Megaman agreed, "I sensed a lot of DarkPower in him…"

"I didn't need to sense anything to know that…" Zero shot cuttingly. Megaman could tell Zero wasn't himself despite the rather short time he's had with him, that and battling him.

"Zero…" Megaman said, although he really didn't have an idea of what to say.

"I'm fine," Zero coldly replied.

"Megaman!" Lan's voice suddenly called, "Jack out! You're damaged pretty badly!"

"G-got it, Lan…" Megaman choked out and jacked out of the Net.

"Zero," Zeke called, "You ought to jack out."

"…Right," Zero acknowlaged, and jacked out.

[Real world]

"Oh Zero…" Zeke sighed. Lan patted Zeke's shoulder.

"Hey, Zeke," Lan called, "It seems Zero's suddenly antisocial, what's up?"

"Oh, he's irritated, he feels as if he can't escape his past as a Darkloid… Zeta looks exactly like Zero when he was Delta…" Zeke replied, "…if only Iris were here to cheer him up…" he muttered inaudiably, "…and Irene to cheer me up… hopefully…"

"Oh, okay," Lan acknowlaged, "…what were you muttering just now?"

"Oh, um…" Zeke's face tinted pink, "N-nothing…" He hoped nobody noticed his slight blushing, but he knew he was a goner once he saw Maylu holding in a laughing fit.

"Umm…" Lan countered, "I don't think Maylu thinks it's 'nothing'." That did it, Zeke knew he couldn't keep his crush a secret. He thought that it probably wouldn't affect much of anything either way. He shook his head then hung it in defeat.

"Okay…" Zeke said, "You caught me…"

"Aww~" Yai cried, "Does someone have the hugest, cutest crush~?"

"You could say that…" Zeke replied, "I don't know if she likes me back…"

"CUUUTE~!" Maylu screamed, "Unrequited love is sooo cute~!" Zeke's face brightened into a full hot pink and chuckled, embaressed.

"So what's this girl like?" Yai asked, "We know she and her Navi are the reason why you and Zero are together, but is there something more?"

"Actually, there's a lot more…" Zeke replied, he sat down on an armless chair near the wall, and leaned back, "She was…a childhood friend of mine, like Lan and Maylu's relationship. The difference was, I was the loner, invisible to society, with a deleted Navi, and she was the preppy with a moderately-known reputation, and a similar Navi, but her Navi had a kinder and caring heart, less so for herself. Her name is Irene, and her Navi's name is Iris… we talked every now and then, on a weekly basis to a monthly basis for the most part…until I actually started liking her… Once that happened, I tried to talk to her much more often to really grasp what she's like. As soon as that happened, the Darkloid attacks began…"

"I'll take over from here," Zero chimed in from the viewscreen, "This was when I was sent out on various missions with my two co-operatives deleting Navis on a mass scale in Netopia…"

"I've heard about this from Chaud… Netopia had a huge Darkloid problem when we were dealing with Dr. Regal here," Lan cut in.

"I see, anyways," Zero continued, "When I was on a mission to delete more Navis, I found Iris crying in the midst of the carnage. The sight was so heartbreaking, I had to stop for a moment and consider whether to silence her or ignore her. I decided to ignore her for the moment, thus sparing her life, and glad I did. I was always considered to be the softest of the Netopian Darkloids, and was looked down upon because of it, but it was that softness that destroyed them. I started to see her more often on the Net on more and more missions. I finally broke and tried to talk to her, it was a very gut-wrenching experience… she tried to get me to stop, which was something unthinkable at the moment, because I had to follow orders. Later I realized, that by talking to her clearly defied my orders. So I purged myself of the DarkPower, and convinced my conflicted friend, Fenfir, to purge himself too. The rest has already been told." Dead silence filled the room as the group processed the story.

"Well then," Yai declared, "As soon as this virus problem is solved we're gonna find Zeke's and Zero's lost loves!"

"Yeah!" Dex cheered, "Always good to help out a buddy! Especially with girls! Haha!"

"Don't worry Zeke, you're a good person, you deserve to have love," Maylu said.

"That's the greatest mission ever set before Megaman and me!" Lan cheered, "We'll take it head-on!" Zeke chuckled.

"YEAH!" the group cheered in unison.

* * *

Yus, I added the massive implied OC pairings, and isn't Lan and friends such good people? Next chapter: Viruses taking control of Navis, second encounter with Zeta, and...quite the scene Zeke found!


	5. Chapter 5

Hello, chapter 5 is here! Let's roll on, right after this!

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

NOW we can start! lol

* * *

"Yet again another virus attack," Megaman said with disdain. Megaman and Zero were again, fighting another group of the purple swordsman viruses, this time with the help of Gutsman.

"Guts! I'll smash these guys to bits!" Gutsman shouted as he punched a virus in its face, and sent another flying with his hammer.

"Let's hope this is all we need to deal with," Zero commented as he stabbed a virus in the chest, and slashed another. Suddenly, a passerby Navi was jumped by one of the viruses. The virus took hold of the Navi, and the virus disapated into a DarkAura and immersed the Navi. The Navi's eyes glowed a deep red.

"Great, the viruses can take control of Navis, we're in trouble," Zero commented gruffly.

"What!" Megaman shouted in surprise.

"That's not good…guts!" Gutsman commented flatly. Suddenly, a familiar crimson figure, to Megaman and Zero, grabbed hold of the controlled Navi and absorbed the DarkPower out of him, and deleted him a second later.

"How could you do something like that!" Megaman raised his voice enraged. Zeta laughed.

"So stupid, you really think I give a crap about other Navis if I'm just going to delete the entire net? Not like you have the ability to stop me any time soon," Zeta verbally tore at Megaman, "The more viruses I absorb, the more powerful I get. I suggest you say your goodbyes while you can, because it's time for the cyberworld to be destroyed, and remade."

"Remade?" Megaman asked. Zeta laughed.

"Really? Does the name Alpha mean anything to you?" Zeta retorted. Megaman stared in utter shock.

"You're not going too…" Megaman started.

"Yes I am," Zeta cut in, "I'm going to resurrect Alpha and recreate the Net as it was intended to be! I will be considered a god as will Alpha!" Zeta began to laugh maniacally.

"You'll never get that far!" Zero challenged.

"Gutsman will crush you! Guts!" Gutsman interjected.

"I think I will," Zeta said dismissively as he whipped past the team, absorbing the rest of the viruses and disappeared.

"Hate that guy…" Megaman commented.

"Who doesn't?" Zero rhetorically asked, as the group jacked out.

[Real world]

Zeke, Lan, and Dex walked back to the couch to relax when Lan got a phone call.

"From who, Megaman?" Lan asked, perplexed.

"Dad," Megaman answered, and Lan answered the call immediately.

"Lan, I need you and Zeke at SciLab," Dr. Hikari said.

"Right, we'll be right there!" Lan said.

"Roger," Zeke acknowlaged coldly, and Lan and Zeke walked out of Yai's mansion to SciLab.

[SciLab]

"Ah, Lan and Zeke, thanks for coming," Dr. Hikari greeted.

"Why'd you call us here?" Lan asked, getting down to business.

"It's about this 'Zeta' character," Dr. Hikari answered, "What we found about him is that as Zero stated, he's the very recreation of Delta, a mass-deleting Darkloid. What we didn't know, is that Zeta is a mass compilation of DarkPower."

"Huh?" Lan grunted.

"Not that much of a surprise, seeing as the viruses had a similar effect as a DarkChip," Zeke mentioned.

"Exactly, which is also exactly why Zeta gets more powerful each time he absorbs a virus," Dr. Hikari continued, "It's taken a massive amount of DarkChips to create such a Darkloid as Zeta, but what I don't get is how did the viruses get here in the first place."

"That maybe a question even Zeta himself might not know," Zeke said, "Either that, or he figured it out himself. He mentioned something about getting enough power to destroy this cyberworld, and use Alpha to recreate it."

"Alpha?" Dr. Hikari asked in shock, "That's a new one…"

"The remaining data of Alpha lies here at SciLab, right?" Lan asked.

"Yes," Dr. Hikari responded, "Along with the skeleton data of a Navi my dad wanted to create for the Alpha Net."

"Skeleton data?" Lan asked.

"Yes, we haven't deciphered what kind of Navi it is, or what's its purpose now," Dr. Hikari elaborated, "Since Alpha had to be sealed, the Navi that my dad wanted to place on the Alpha Net lost some purpose. He may have done something to ensure his creation wouldn't be discarded."

"Mind if Zero and I check it out?" Zeke asked, "Zero could gather more information on this skeleton data if you want." Dr. Hikari stared at Zeke for a moment, deciding to whether or not to accept Zeke's request.

"…Fine, don't take too long," Dr. Hikari finally replied, "I'm sending you security codes to allow you to get there." Before long, Zeke's PET bleeped, signaling that the codes have reached Zero.

"Thank you Dr. Hikari," Zeke said, and went over to jack Zero in, "Let's see what that thing is Zero."

"Roger," Zero said as he transferred into the system.

[Cyberworld]

Zero touched down in SciLab's main server. He looked around for some sort of direction as to getting to the skeleton data.

"Zero," Zeke said, "One of the codes is a map that leads us straight to it. There should be a locked door to your left, I'll use the codes to open the doors, you keep walking."

"Roger," Zero complied and turned left and sure enough, there was a locked door, which Zeke unlocked seconds later. Zero walked through the door to a narrow hallway maze. "Zeke, I need some help here…"

"No problem…" Zeke gave Zero the directions and unlocked doors as Zero needed them up until Zero came to an energy generator-like structure.

"What's this?" Zero rhetorically asked as he approached the glowing blue structure. Zero saw within the structure a bright bluish helmet. "There's a lot of data here… whatever Dr. Hikari's father created had to be strong…"

"Try accessing it," Zeke suggested.

"Right," Zero complied and saw a small control panel on the front, and touched it. The panel reacted and Zero hopped back to find a scientist-like person in front of him, "It's a hologram… a message of some sort?"

"_Hello,_" the hologram began to play, "_If you are listening to this, then you have discovered my greatest creation other than Alpha. This was supposed to be a Navi of infinite potential used on the Internet that Alpha created, however, my peers were fearful of Alpha's power and the type of technology used and therefore, Alpha had to be sealed. I couldn't let my creation be discarded along with Alpha, so I degraded the actual Navi data so that it would be resurrected later by my son. This data is ment to combine with the Navi that has human DNA, which I know would be my son's creation. The Navi of infinite potential, and the Navi of human DNA…together they will become the greatest of heroes the world will ever see in its existence!_" The hologram disappeared when the message ended.

"Well, we don't know any Navi that has human DNA, at least at the moment," Zeke commented, "C'mon back Zero, we're done here."

"Right," Zero complied and jacked out.

[Real world]

"Find anything?" Dr. Hikari inquired.

"Nothing of immediate importance," Zeke replied. Dr. Hikari sighed.

"Well, thanks for looking," Dr. Hikari said sympathetically.

"Sorry I couldn't be of much use in that field," Zeke said, and with that, Lan and Zeke went home.

[The next day]

Zeke woke up at 10:30 on Saturday morning. He got dressed and finished up the remaining homework he had with Zero until he heard a thump from above.

"Aw great," Zeke moaned, "Another loud morning…" He went up the door of Lan's room and stopped cold at the sound of a boy and girl moaning. _Huh? Moaning? A girl?_ Zeke thought as he pushed the slightly ajar door to find, indeed, Lan and Maylu on the floor, kissing. _Greheheat…_ Zeke softly closed the door and went downstairs. _Why can't I ever have that? I really hope Irene likes me back…_

_

* * *

_

Yes, I did just add that in, for those of you that thought; "He did NOT just add that in..." ;3 This chapter is severely important, but not for this story (SPOILERS!) I'm thinking about starting a ZX story while still working on this one, so look out of it! I seem to be a little low on the reviews, reviewing will be much appriciated! ^^ Next chapter: Encounter with Bass, third encounter with Zeta, and Zeta vs Bass!


	6. Chapter 6

Yaaay, chapter 6, read for interesting concepts.

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Okay, let the madness began!

* * *

Zeke and Lan walk into SciLab, three days after Zeke and Zero's expedition into the deeper regions of SciLab's server.

"What do you have Doctor?" Zeke inquired.

"Well," Dr. Hikari began, "we've been working on a way to eliminate the Zeta viruses, which might in turn, weaken Zeta himself."

"Really? Would that even be possible?" Lan asked.

"Even I am perplexed by this theory," Zeke commented, "Would you please elaborate?"

"Zeke!" Lan interjected, "Quit it with the four-plus syllable words!"

"Ahem," Dr. Hikari continued, "Zeta's plan is to Alpha to create what my dad wanted, so we're going to use what is left of Alpha against Zeta in the hopes that, while it might not destroy Zeta, it'll force Zeta to destroy the very thing he wanted to use himself, thus his plan becoming nothing."

"Interesting, sounds like a plan," Zeke commented, "and what of the Zeta virus?"

"The Zeta virus would be deleted because of what we're using Alpha for, and if we delete enough viruses, Zeta wouldn't even be able to gain enough energy to carry out his OWN part of his plan," Dr. Hikari explained.

"Great, and seeing that the main part of Alpha was deleted by Megaman, it'll take a lot of energy to restore it," Lan commented, "this should bring Zeta to his knees!"

"This might not stop him though," Zeke warned, "He'll find some way to make himself a so-called 'NetGod'."

"So the plan is this," Dr. Hikari said, "Our weapon will severely hamper Zeta's plans, and while Zeta figures out what to do, you two will strike, and delete him in his weakened state if Zeta hasn't been deleted already."

"Got it," Lan acknowlaged, "Let's put away the DarkChips, for good this time!" Zeke nodded in agreement.

"Alright," Dr. Hikari concluded, "We'll begin our work here, what you can do in the meantime is delete any viruses you come across. The less viruses there are when we use the weapon, the less power Zeta will have overall, thus making your life easier."

"Alright, thanks Dad!" Lan said as he and Zeke left SciLab for Lan's house.

"So what's going down today?" Zeke asked, "Gonna have Maylu over again?"

"Umm, I was actually planning on that yes, but how'd you know it'd be 'again'?" Lan said, perplexed.

"Let's just say you weren't quiet about it," Zero interjected.

"Oh…" Lan said, coming to realization.

"That, and I caught up with her before she left and we talked for a bit," Zeke added. Lan was apparently upstarted by this.

"What's this about you getting alone with my girl?" Lan demanded answers. Zeke leaned away from Lan, caught off-guard.

"Haven't you heard of, 'freak accidents'?" Zeke rhetorically asked, "And besides, I told you I already like another girl."

"How would I know that it isn't just a cover-story?" Lan challenged.

"You wouldn't know either way, besides the Zeta virus," Zeke answered calmly. Lan grunted, knowing how true Zeke's statement laid.

"Ugh…sorry for that…" Lan finally said.

"No problem," Zeke said sympathetically, "Let's just focus on deleting the Zeta virus and Zeta himself."

"Yeah…" Lan agreed, "Regal's invention must be destroyed at all costs."

"Regal?" Zeke asked as Zero perked up at the sound of the name.

"He created the DarkChip," Lan explained, "Don't you know him?"

"Zero might, but I never did," Zeke replied. Lan shrugged and the duo arrived at the house. "Hey Lan, let's crack some skulls on the Net, I think there's a tournament going on."

"Okay, it's been boring just dominating Dex and Gutsman, and us stalemating," Lan reasoned as he went to his room, Zeke went to his room, "Megaman, get us into today's tournament." Lan jacked in Megaman.

"Zero, let's get into that tournament," Zeke ordered as he jacked Zero in. Several minutes passed and the Navis returned, entering the teams in the tournament. "Excellent, now we'll be able to have some fun."

"Great, a change of pace is always fun!" Lan said excitedly. The Navis went on to the tournament area.

[Cyberworld]

The tournament proceeded as normal, Megaman and Zero having no trouble eliminating the completion down to themselves. The battle between them was very long and drawn out, which it would've stalemated like how it usually does, if it weren't for a certain Navi interrupting the battle. A purplish-like portal appeared above the arena, and dropping from it, a cloaked black Navi, landed between Megaman and Zero, facing Megaman.

"Bass!" Megaman shouted in surprise. Zero just stared in surprise, his ZeroSword brandished if the need to fight came.

"Megaman…" Bass began, "I sense the cyberworld is in danger…"

"Yes, it is," Megaman replied, "Zeta and the Zeta virus. Zeta needs the Zeta virus to gain enough power to delete this cyberworld, and resurrect Alpha…"

"That disgusts me…" Bass said, not bothering to hide the extreme disdain he carried, "For once Megaman… we will be allies for this incursion, to an extent…"

"An extent?" Megaman commented, "I wouldn't expect anything less. Name the extent please."

"Indeed we are working on the same side," Bass explained, "but we are not going to work 'hand-in-hand' persay."

"So more of a 'distant-joint' operation then?" Megaman guessed, "We'll be in the loop about what each other's doing, but not actually planning together, yes?"

"Sounds like it," Bass commented and turned to Zero, "and who might this be?"

"I'm Zero, Zeta was born out of my former self," Zero responded, "and in short, Zeta is who I failed to be in the eyes of my superior." Bass looked at Zero as if he knew exactly what he's talking about.

"You both would want to come with me, I'd like to know what you're doing, so I know what I'm doing," Bass said.

"Alright, Bass," Megaman complied as Bass created a purplish portal behind himself. Zero nodded as Bass led Megaman and Zero through the portal, himself walking through afterward, thus the portal disappearing after Bass walked through.

[Elsewhere, secluded from society]

The trio of Megaman, Zero, and Bass appeared after a purplish orb dissipated. Megaman and Zero turn to Bass, ready to discuss the plan SciLab is working on.

"As I've said before, I'd like to know what you are working on, so I can take the most effective steps to have the highest probability of success for both of us," Bass re-iterated.

"SciLab is working on using what is left of Alpha to create a form of weapon that'll delete a large portion of the Zeta virus, while it will also weaken Zeta himself," Megaman explained.

"In the meantime," Zero added, "We're supposed to delete any Zeta viruses we come across, for the more we delete Zeta viruses, the weaker Zeta's going to be, thus our lives made easier." Bass was either slightly distraught by the news, or showed a little of his irritation, as if an obstacle has been put in his way.

"I see," Bass processed the situation, "And the end result?"

"After we use the weapon," Megaman replied, "Zero and I are going to find and delete Zeta."

"Uh-huh," Bass processed the information and formulated his part in the plan, "I think I'll keep the chip-composition busy while we wait, someone has to keep him from absorbing viruses we're not 'coming across'."

"Okay," Zero said, "and what will you do after the weapon is used?"

"You fool, I ment to say I'll be fighting Zeta and pestering him while you have clean-up of the viruses," Bass scoffed, "So after the weapon has been used, you two will accompany me in deleting him."

"Okay then," Zero acknowlaged.

"So it is settled," Bass commented, "I'll let you take your leave, and I'll hunt the rat."

"Okay," Megaman acknowlaged. A sinister laugh echoed across the cyberworld and, none other than Zeta appears in front of the group.

"Heheh, Zero and Megaman," Zeta chuckled and looked at Bass, "Plus one?" Bass looked extremely disgusted by the comment referring to himself.

"Plus one my foot!" Bass spat, obviously his power being looked down upon, "I am Bass! One of the most powerful Navis!" Zeta chuckled at this.

"Then we shall battle, to see who is the most powerful of the two of us," Zeta challenged.

"Indeed, however you might be disappointed, for the only Navi with the capability to defeat me is Megaman," Bass remarked as he sent Megaman and Zero into a purplish portal, sending them back to where they came from.

"And you send your rival away because?" Zeta inquired.

"That is none of your business," Bass retorted.

"Then we have no more to discuss," Zeta remarked.

"Let's have our fists do the 'discussing' now," Bass shot and charged at Zeta.

"Hmph," Zeta grunted and brandished his ZetaSword and began to slash, Bass responded with his Dark Arm Blade. Swordplay followed, until Zeta faked a slash, and struck Bass in the side. Bass decided to respond by throwing an energy ball at Zeta's face. Zeta retaliated with a barrage of SonicSword attacks, with Bass responded with throwing more energy balls to counter the SonicSword attacks. Zeta charged at Bass with a ZetaNeedle attack, an attack that uses his ZetaSword, and repeatedly stabbing the opponent numerous times at high speed. Bass responded with swinging his Dark Arm Blade in a bezerker-style manner to fend off the ZetaNeedle. Bass then goes on the offensive by attempting to fire a DarknessOverload attack, which caught Zeta off-guard, but Zeta survived the attack and charged Bass again with his ZetaSword, which Bass again, counters with his Dark Arm Blade, and swordplay continued. Zeta took a step back, dodging a swipe from Bass, and counterattacked with a StepSword attack, which deleted Bass's cloak.

"…Not bad," Bass commented.

"You're not too shabby yourself," Zeta remarked and turned around to face Bass, who did likewise.

* * *

Uh-huh, epic battle between Zeta and Bass, and some drama between Zeke and Lan about Maylu. Reviews are appriciated! ^^ Next chapter: Zeta vs Bass continues and nightmares!


	7. Chapter 7

Yes, chapter 7 has arrived! "Give zis American a wide birth..." Oops, wrong theme! XD

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

And...begin!

* * *

Bass charged forward, Dark Arm Blade out, and began more swordplay with Zeta. Zeta jumps back and attempts to use SonicSword attacks, but Bass counters them with his Hell's Rolling attacks, and follows up with a Darkness Overload. Zeta took the hit with surprise.

[Meanwhile, Real world, SciLab]

"Huh?" Dr. Hikari was stunned by the news.

"Yes Dr. Hikari," Zeke confirmed, "Bass is also helping us out by fighting Zeta himself."

"He must have his own reasoning to fight other than survival…" Dr. Hikari muttered.

"Dad," Lan spoke up, "It really doesn't matter at this point what Bass's motives are, what matters is Bass wants to help."

"I guess you're right Lan," Dr. Hikari sighed, "Thank you for telling me, now we can make the weapon with far more quality and more effectiveness."

"No problem," Zeke said as he and Lan left for home.

[Lan's house]

"It's been a long day," Lan mentioned, "Let's get some sleep for tomorrow."

"Agreed," Zeke concurred as the men went to their rooms to sleep.

[Zeke's dream]

_"Zeke!" a girl said in distress, "Do something!"_

"_I got it Irene, Zero!" Zeke shouted, seeing the assaulting Zeta moving in on Zero and Iris, "I got something for you, ElecBlade, BattleChip in! Download!" Zero's right arm transformed into an ElecBlade, and Zero was just about to attack when he was suddenly immobilized by Zeta. Zeta then set his eyes on Iris, and walked up to her._

"_Iris!" Zero shouted as he struggled to get free._

"_Zeke!" Irene shouted._

"_Zero, HELP!" Iris shouted as Zeta impaled her on Zeta's ZetaSword, deleting her._

"_IRIS!" Zero cried with tears filling his eyes._

"_ZEKE TAKASHI!" Irene shouted angerly, "WHY did you let Iris get deleted!"_

"_It wasn't my fault, Zero was-" Zeke started, but Irene cut him off._

"_Zero just STOOD THERE!" Irene interrupted him, "Don't you guys care about us at all!" Before Zeke could retort, Irene ran away, tears in her eyes._

_"Irene…" Zeke said futilely, he dropped to his knees and sobbed heavily._

[Zeke's room]

"Iris!" Zero shouted apparently waking up from a nightmare, Zeke waking up at the same time. Zero and Zeke looked at each other. "I just had a nightmare about seeing Iris getting deleted by Zeta…"

"I had the same nightmare…" Zeke mentioned, "Only Irene gave me a hard time about it."

"That's not good…" Zero commented, "a bad omen?"

"I'd rather not believe it to be anything…" Zeke dismissed the theory. Suddenly the door opened to reveal a worried Lan.

"Zeke!" Lan yelled, "are you okay!"

"I'm fine…" Zeke said, "just a nightmare…"

"Okay, well you actually got me up on-time," Lan laughed, "So let's get to school."

"Alright…" Zeke said. The school day followed as normal, uninteresting minus the mild Zeta virus –busting. Zeke was still worried about the nightmare he had, as much as he wanted to dismiss it.

"You alright man?" Dex asked the troubled Zeke walking out of the school, "You seem quieter today."

"Leave him," Lan defended, "He just had a nightmare about his crush, that's all." Dex looked at Lan, then at Zeke.

"Okay, I hear you," Dex finally said. The rest of the trip to the 'forkway', the place where most of the group parts ways, was quiet, after the forkway, was left with Zeke, Lan, and Maylu.

"You want to talk about it?" Maylu asked, attempting to help Zeke. Zeke looked down at Zero, who gave him a nod.

"Okay, come with Lan and me," Zeke said. Lan looked at Maylu and Zeke and digested what was about to take place.

"Okay," Lan confirmed. The trio entered into Lan's house, said their greetings to Mrs. Hikari, and went to Zeke's room, where he and Zero talked about the nightmare.

"Dang," Lan was the first to comment, "missing your crush and the Zeta virus must be taking a toll on you…"

"Wish we had some way of finding her…" Maylu commented, "From what you're saying…she shouldn't be acting like that, especially since it wasn't even Zero's fault, it was Zeta that prevented him from doing anything."

"I called it a nightmare for a reason," Zeke mentioned.

"Very true," Lan confirmed, "But Maylu's right, we need to find a way to find her…" he paused, as if recalling something to mind, "Oh! Isn't Chaud and Raika doing some world patrol for the Officials Megaman?" Lan held up his PET to converse with his Navi.

"Yeah, they should still be in Sharo," Megaman replied.

"Alright! I'll send a message to Chaud, ask him to help us as a favor for me," Lan announced, "Zeke, you happen to have any pictures of Irene and Iris?"

"That's like asking a random person if he has a NetNavi!" Zeke joked and activated Zero's PET to the PC, "Zero, open file; 'Irene/Iris memories' picture folder!"

"Picture FOLDER!" Maylu repeated, "you must REALLY like this girl."

"You just noticed it now?" Zeke joked. Zero presented the folder on the PC screen. "Open it in thumbnails." Zero opened the folder and showed several pictures of a younger version of Zeke with a young girl with blue eyes and brown hair tied up in a ponytail, along with several pictures of Zero and a violet colored Navi with a skirt, emerald green eyes and a semi-long, thin ponytail. Her emblem on her chest had a yellow background, four green lobes in an X pattern, a stub line jutting out from the lobes' center. She was half a head shorter than Zero, her helmet consisting of the same violet color, but had a lavender form of her emblem close to her face. Lan and Maylu jacked in their Navis so that they could see the pictures themselves. The folder had a small, active scroll bar.

"Oh, my…" Roll commented, "These pictures are sooo CUTE!"

"Wow Zero…" Megaman commented, "You took all these of you and Iris?"

"There wasn't much free time between my purging of the DarkPower, and my rebellion," Zero explained, "So we decided to use all the free time we had with each other, sharing our memories that we make in that short amount of time."

"Wow…" Roll said amazed.

"There seems to be more of Zeke and Irene than that of Zero and Iris…" Lan observed. Maylu smacked him on his arm.

"That's because Zeke knew Irene nearly his whole LIFE, Zero and Iris only knew each other for—"

"A month," Zero finished for Maylu, "total."

"Oh…" Lan said in realization as Zero scrolled down.

"Zero," Zeke commanded, "open the 'Final Memory' folder…"

"Roger," Zero complied and scrolled down to the bottom, where another folder laid, with only one item in it.

"You put only one picture in a separate folder?" Lan asked.

"You'll see why I did that," Zeke assured Lan as Zero opened the folder, revealing Zeke at nearly his current age, and a more current version of Iris, still maintaining the ponytail, but it was fluffier and longer, and she wore a purple T-shirt and what appeared to be a lavender skirt, but the picture cut off where the skirt began. She was also a third of a head shorter than Zeke.

"Wh-when was this?" Lan choked out.

"That," Zeke answered, "was her fifteenth birthday… this is the most current picture of her…I look at it right before I hit the sack…" his eyes began to water, "and every night…I promise myself…that'd I'll see her again, even if it means I'll die doing it, I wouldn't even care…because…" tears began to fall from his face, "I'd take death over never seeing her again…" Maylu put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay Zeke…" Maylu said, attempting to comfort Zeke, "we're going to get her for you, it'll be alright, you'll see her again."

"Megaman," Zero began, giving Megaman two files, "here are the pictures you'll need to send, facials of Irene and Iris…"

"Thank you," Megaman said, receiving the files and sending them to Lan's PET, "Lan, send Chaud the message with those files."

"I'm working on it," Lan said, quickly putting together the message and attaching the files onto it, and sending the message, "there."

"See Zeke?" Maylu attempted again to comfort Zeke, "We're already working on finding her. As soon as we're done with this business with the Zeta virus, we'll go help Chaud and Raika find her, okay?" Suddenly, Lan's PET bleeped with a telephone call.

"Lan!" a cold voice erupted from the PET, "What do you mean by this 'favor'?"

"It's called, 'helping out a friend'!" Lan retorted, "I don't know if you'll even understand that, Chaud, but at least give some respect and help us find her, we're kind of in a jam at the moment, so we can't look for ourselves, and you're already abroad so I thought you could do this side-request. We'd do the same for you if there was someone you really cared about missing." Chaud sighed.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do from here, what are you going to do when you get out of your 'jam'?" Chaud asked.

"First you'll have to give us what you have, namely last known location, and we'll take it from there," Lan explained.

"Alright, I'll ask Raika if he can access the census database," Chaud said, "or something of the kind for Sharo, but I don't know if we'll be able to find her here."

"If you don't find her there, then you're closer to finding her than you were before," Lan dismissed the pessimistic comment, "I can tell you now that she won't be at Netopia."

"Alright, so we can cross that country off the list," Chaud said, "I'll do what I can from here, good luck to you."

"Alright, same to you man," Lan said as Chaud cut the connection, "Don't worry Zeke, we're gonna get her back for ya!"

"Thanks guys…" Zeke said, "you guys are the best friends I had since…Felix, Alex, and Irene…"

* * *

Nice, isn't it? I'm thinking about doing things considering my OCs, which I'll make a poll of some sort, perhaps at the end of my fics, still don't know yet. Next chapter: Chaud gets a hit, some R&R, and fights at school!


	8. Chapter 8

Yush, chapter 8 ist here! We'll start...right after this:

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

NOW we shall begin the craziness!

* * *

Several weeks passed since Zeke and Zero revealed the pictures of Irene and Iris, and summer vacation has arrived for the group of sophomores, and their families decided to have all their families go to Beach Street and stay in a hotel, all paid by the Ayanokojis' large income. The group goes ahead of their families to the rooms, Zeke armed with all the keys as him deemed the 'most mature' of all the group by the parents. Lan got to the boys' suite first, naturally.

"Zeke, you slowpoke!" Lan shouted, "get us in here!" Maylu walked up and smacked him on the back of the head.

"C'mon, Lan!" she scolded, "we're all as excited as you are but please…"

"Okay…" Lan surrendered as Zeke came up with the key, "we're gonna have fun though!"

"That is true, Lan," Maylu agreed with Lan.

"Very," Zeke concurred as he inserted the key and unlocked the door, "I just wish Irene could share in this fun…" Maylu laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Zeke," she said comfortingly, "we'll find her, and I'm sure she'd want you to be having fun despite not having her around."

"Yeah…" Zeke sighed as he gave Maylu the key to the girls' suite, which was next door. The parents' stayed in the two rooms across from the kids' suites, the Hikaris' and the Sakurai's mainly, since the Ayanokoji parents were obviously busy with running Gabcom. Dex rushed into the boys' suite with a bound, toppling Zeke and Lan with the large mound of blubber landing on them shortly after.

"Aw, Dex!" Lan cried, "Can we NOT crash into people please?"

"Dex!" Zeke shouted as he tried to push Dex, "Would you mind getting off!"

"Whoap, sorry," Dex said apologetically as he got up, Zeke and Lan getting up afterwards.

"I hear you guys are having fun," Megaman commented.

"Agreed," Zero also commented, "but that aside, is there a server we can jack into?"

"Yeah!" Gutsman suddenly shouted, "I wanna Net-battle someone already! Guts!" Zeke facepalmed at this.

"Ugh…no comments from this side of the peanut gallery," Zeke groaned.

"What's that supposed to mean!" Dex roared. Zeke ignored the question and found a PC with a jack-in port, and jacked Zero in. Dex did likewise, and so was Lan, but he stopped when he found that he had a phone call.

"Chaud?" Lan asked, and a familiar voice came from the other side of the line.

"Lan, I got a hit about that Irene character," Chaud said, "It appears she's on the Netopian-Sharo border. I'll be sending a photo shortly."

"Alright, that's great!" Lan said excitedly.

"Irene?" Zeke asked bewildered.

"There's more," Chaud quickly said, continuing, "I've found that she isn't alone, would you know of this?" Lan looked to Zeke for the answer.

"I'd assume that'd be Alex," Zeke reasoned, "after all, they DID fall in the same direction."

"I see," Chaud continued, "anyways, the trail's rather fresh, so I think I'll be able to find them and send them over there."

"Alright, that's cool," Lan acknowlaged.

"Lan, I hope you know that I'm not going to just send them to you immediately," Chaud warned. Lan paused for a minute.

"…Do what you need to do," Lan finally replied, and Chaud closed the link, and a file appeared on Lan's PET. Lan sent the file onto the PC with Megaman, to display the photo. It showed an old, apparently forgotten town with dark dirt roads. Irene is seen in her the attire that she had in the recent photo that Zeke showed, and confirmed that she wore a lavender skirt along with black boots that came a about four centimeters past her ankles. She appeared to have dirt upon her, most likely due to the fall that Zeke described, she was seen with a man that looked similar to Zeke. The man had red shoes, black jeans, a read hooded sweater zipped up half way to reveal a white T-shirt. He had blond hair that was longer and wilder than Zeke's, and brown eyes. He looked equally as dirty as Irene had, if not more so.

"Ah, that would be Alex," Zeke said.

"You ain't worried that that guy's with your crush?" Dex asked.

"Not really, he's already got a girlfriend, and so does his Navi," Zeke replied.

"Oh, guess you trust him then?" Dex guessed.

"He helped Irene and I get away from the Duke of Darkness," Zeke replied, "He's also a friend."

"Remember what Maylu said Zeke?" Lan said, "She said it'll be alright, and look, Chaud found her, and now we'll wait a month at most 'til we meet her, and you'll see her again!" Zeke looked out the window, visible tears in his eyes.

"Yes…" Zeke said and raised his head slightly, "…Finally…"

"Heh, just makes me wonder," Dex commented, "if I'll find someone…"

"Dex, there's someone for everyone," Lan said in a comforting tone, "I'm sure you'll find your girl!"

"Yeah yeah," Dex said dismissively and the group put away their belongings, namely copies of their usual attire. Lan saw his swimming trunks and got an idea.

"Now, I donno about you, but I think we should get ready to hit the beach!" Lan declared.

"Bingo," Zeke agreed, "Your woman must be waiting for you Lan!"

"Har har," Lan said sarcastically, "she probably is."

"That's bad Lan," Zeke said in a joking 'matter-of-fact'-ly manner, "your woman shouldn't wait for you, you should wait for her!"

"Yeah yeah, shut up," Lan said dismissively as he went to change into his swimming trunks.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Dex stammered excitedly.

"That'd be a monkey," Zeke joked at the sound Dex was making.

"Shut up!" Dex shouted, "I'm going to do, 'The Forbidden Art'!"

"Oh GOSH Dex!" Lan shouted, "DON'T for the love of PETE no!"

"Sorry bro, but I'm doing it!" Dex shouted as he readied his swimming trunks.

"You KNOW the girls are next door!" Lan argued, "That sound'll make 'em freak!"

"Your point?" Dex said, as he performed the technique, resulting in a loud ripping sound that tore through the hallway of the floor, followed by the screeching of screaming girls.

"So THAT'S what 'The Forbidden Art' is!" Zeke said, making no attempt to show the disdain in his voice.

"Yeah, which is usually a VERY bad idea!" Lan said, all too familiar with the technique.

"DEX!" Maylu's voice boomed from the other room, "I KNOW that was you who ripped his underpants!" Zeke and Lan, who already changed and knew what would be coming when a girl screamed like that, quickly slipped out of the room thus leaving Dex to face Maylu and Yai by himself.

"Wait guys!" Dex hollered, "Bros before hoes, right?" Zeke and Lan headed to the beach.

"You think Dex'll come back alive?" Zeke asked.

"He'll be alive," Lan replied, "he'll only be extremely quiet for the rest of the day."

"True true," Zeke said and looked out to the sea and sighed, "Glad Irene's alive…" Lan smiled and looked out to the sea himself.

"We found her," Lan said triumphantly, "and we'll meet her as soon as this Zeta virus crap is all over with. Speaking of which I believe they are nearing their final stages for the weapon as well as a device to lure the virus from aboad, and perhaps Zeta himself."

"Yeah…" Zeke said absentmindedly, "I'll delete Zeta…the remains of Delta…for Irene…and Zero will delete Zeta…for Iris…" His eyes began to fill with water, then he pumped his fist to the sky in a fighting stance, "Irene Kasumi! I'm gonna delete this jerk, then I'm gonna come for you! Just you wait! I'll see you again if it's the last thing I'll do!" Just then, Maylu walked up, changed into her bikini, hearing the commotion, smiled and hugged Lan.

"It'll be fun having two pairs around," Maylu commented.

"No doubt," Lan agreed, "we'd finally be able to double-date!" Zeke chuckled.

"Double-dating sounds fun," Zeke commented as he fell silent staring out to the sea. Lan and Maylu smiled at each other and looked out themselves.

_Irene…_ Zeke thought, _I like you very much… and I hope we'll be able to spend a lot of time together… I want us to be together…because without you…I'm just not exactly the same, even with good friends… I…I…I want you…_

_

* * *

_

Yes, I decided to toss humor, and yes, Zeke's a crybaby when it comes to Irene... (Zeke: SHUT UP ZS!) lol... Next chapter: Fun in the sun and final preparations


	9. Chapter 9

Hello all! Yes, I know it's been a while... Okay, I'm sorry... I got busy. I'll try to update as much as I can... But if I can, at least make it up to you all with an epic update that's worth waiting for? Lol, that's up to your interpretation. Let's get the normal garbage out of the way first...

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Okay, here we GOOOOOOOOOOO!

* * *

An hour after Dex got severely scolded by Yai, Lan decided to have the group play volleyball. The obvious teams were Lan and Maylu against Zeke and Yai. Zeke was up first as server, and looked carefully at his opponents. Maylu was focused on where the ball was going to go. Lan on the other hand, was apparently more interested in Maylu's butt instead of the ball. He smirked when he came to this realization as he served the ball straight to Lan's face, which was turned at Maylu at the time. The ball smacked Lan right on his right cheek, taking him down to the sand. The ball rolled off and into the sand. Zeke and Yai then had a huge laughing fit.

"Hey Lan!" Zeke taunted, "You might not want to stare at your girlfriend for too long, it might hurt after a while!" Lan supported himself on his arms and glared at Zeke.

"Yeah shut up!" Lan retorted, "At least I have a beautiful girlfriend TO stare at!" Zeke was displeased with the comment.

"Uh-huh, you're cool, our serve buddy," Zeke dismissed the offensive comment and the game continued. Zeke served the ball again, and Lan was totally focused this time around after being slammed by the ball. A few volleys went back and forth until Yai set the ball and Zeke jumped high above her to slam the ball straight down between their opponents, thus another point was scored. The game continued for hours while Dex sat under an umbrella motionless and appeared soulless. The game ended with Lan's team at 17, and Zeke's team with 25. "Total landslide!" Zeke exclaimed as he gave Yai a high-five, "just, totally demolished!" Lan unburied himself from the sand and marched up to Zeke.

"That game was totally rigged!" he challenged, "We could have totally crushed you!" Zeke just chuckled

"Spoken like a true sore loser and yes, it was rigged, by your own distractions" Zeke replied with an insult. Lan became extremely furious with this comment, and was going to continue the argument when Maylu hugged him from behind, forcing him to stop. Lan sighed.

"Good game man," Lan finally said as he stuck his hand out, "You were right about me; I was too busy looking at my piece of heaven that's hugging me right now." Zeke shook his hand while Maylu let out a moan.

"Aww, Lan you're so sweet!" she cooed as she nuzzled her head into Lan's back. Zeke sighed and looked out at the sunset.

"Hey, it's getting kinda late guys," Lan commented, "Let's get on back to the hotel." Zeke stood motionless staring at the sunset.

"…You guys go, I'll catch up, you do have that tiki to worry about," Zeke said, the 'tiki' referring to Dex, who was still sitting motionless and soulless. Lan and Maylu looked at Dex, then back to Zeke. "I just have something to do here first…" Lan and Maylu nodded and proceeded with Yai to move Dex back to the hotel, while Zeke walked closer to the shoreline in the direction of the sunset. There was a mild breeze that flew against him as tears formed in his eyes. "Irene… I can't wait… to see you again…"

[A few days later, back at DenTech City]

Zeke woke up at 11:00 on Thursday morning, though he remained in his bed for a few minutes longer until his PET beeped by the PC.

"Zeke," Zero called, "It's an alert forwarded from Lan; you might want to get up." Zeke groaned and got up to sit in his chair and took up his PET to read the alert, forwarded from Lan, originally from Chaud. It read:

"_The target has been captured and is en route to Electopia. ETA is about 2 weeks."_

The message, as short as it was, brought Zeke to tears.

"Irene…" he said. Zero simply went back on standby to allow the news to sink in. Megaman appeared on Zeke's PC screen.

"Zeke," Megaman began, "You got the alert, right?" Zeke quickly wiped his eyes.

"Y-Yeah, I did," Zeke replied.

"I sent you the alert, because Lan is still asleep," Megaman explained, "just so you don't' misplace credit."

"Oh, he's asleep for once?" Zeke jokingly asked.

"Haha, Zeke, normally I can't get him up on time!" Megaman laughed, so did Zeke and Zero. Megaman returned to his PET while Zeke jacked Zero into the Net to bust more Zeta viruses. An hour or two later, Zeke heard the doorbell ring, and decided to get it.

"I got it!" he shouted as he opened the door to see Maylu, "Oh, hey Maylu, what can I do for you?"

"I'm here for Lan… he called me over…" she replied. Zeke immediately caught on and allowed her to go to Lan's room, where she was quickly sucked into by Lan and the door shut. Zeke sighed.

_Soon, I can be alone with Irene…hopefully…_ Zeke thought, sighed then shouted, "Mrs. Hikari! I'm going out!" He walked out of the house when bleeping occurred from his PET.

"Zeke, you have a call," Zero informed as Zeke took out his PET, "it's Dr. Hikari."

"Hello?" Zeke answered the call.

"Zeke? Ah thank goodness," Dr. Hikari said from the other end, "I couldn't get a hold of Lan, is he okay?" Zeke tried not to look disgruntled.

"Oh, he's better than okay," Zeke replied, failing to hide the disdain in his voice, "he's just a little 'indisposed'."

"Oh, I see," said Dr. Hikari, "well, I need at least one of you to come to SciLab; we're in our final stages of building our Anti-Zeta weapon."

"I'll be there," Zeke responded and ended the call. He then ran to SciLab with some spring in his step. _It's all coming together… Irene… I can't wait to see you again, but I don't think you'd like to see the final battle… it's going to be gruesome even with this weapon…_

[SciLab]

Zeke entered SciLab and was greeted by Dr. Hikari.

"Ah, Zeke, thanks for coming," Dr. Hikari gave his usual greeting.

"It's not a problem," Zeke replied, "so what's the weapon supposed to do?" Dr. Hikari scratched his head.

"Well," he began, "The Anti-Zeta as we call it, is supposed to emit what we call, an Alpha Pulse, which is an area of the cyberworld actually becomes the Alpha Net for a set period of time."

"Hmm…" Zeke processed the information.

"Zeke," Zero informed, "I am recording this conversation so Lan and Megaman can review it later."

"Alright Zero," Zeke acknowledged and turned his attention back to Dr. Hikari, "Continue."

"So," continued Dr. Hikari, "when a part of the cyberworld becomes the Alpha Net, most data can still survive in it except for viruses and NetNavis."

"Navis can't survive in there either?" Zeke questioned.

"Nope, not unless they can escape before they are deleted," Dr. Hikari grimly replied.

"Hmm…" Zeke processed the information, "what about Darkloids such as Zeta? How is he going to fare?"

"I do know," Dr. Hikari said, "that Zeta isn't going to like it, and is significantly going to weaken. Best case scenario is that we can delete him with it."

"…Worst case scenario?" Zeke asked.

"Worst case scenario, is that it will paralyze him, weakening him for the duration of the effects of the Alpha Pulse," Dr. Hikari answered then changed the subject, "We also have created it to have a targeting system, so we can pinpoint where Zeta viruses are running amok and smash them with the Alpha Pulse." Zeke nodded in understanding.

"How soon can this system be put into effect?" Zeke asked.

"Very soon, we're still in the finalization process, but if it is needed to be used now we can fire it right now," Dr. Hikari replied, "in fact, it might be ready in a few minutes, if you could stay for the first firing I would appreciate it."

"Sure," Zeke shrugged, "I don't have anything better to do today." _It'd also be best to essentially leave the house to Lan for a while; I don't think they'll be done for at least a few hours…_ He took a seat in the entrance hall before Dr. Hikari shooed him over to a chair placed next to where he'd stand.

"Dr. Hikari!" someone called, "Finalization is complete!"

"Excellent," Dr. Hikari said, and sure enough, an alarm sounded for viruses.

"Dr. Hikari!" someone else called, "Zeta viruses are attacking Den Area 1!"

"Ready the Anti-Zeta Emitter!" Dr. Hikari ordered as a core-like object appeared on the main view screen, apparently the emitter. The emitter had a silver circular base with another circular offshoot coming up from it, a gelatinous orange orb levitated above the base that had four silver rings in a line and greatly spaced, creating a tube-like structure around the orb. Levitating above the rings was a silver funnel-like structure, and levitating above that, a silver spire-like structure ending in a blue bulb. Levitating and revolving around the entire structure were eight boxes with two spikes on the top of each. Four of them levitated at the height between the rings and the funnel with the spikes facing up, while the other four were levitating at the height between the base and the rings, the spikes facing down, and revolving in the opposite direction. The boxes moved faster as the emitter generated energy.

"The Anti-Zeta Emitter is charging!" someone shouted, "Power levels are normal and steady!" Lines of what looked like orange electricity flowed between the funnel and the base, sometimes through the orb as it began to glow. As the emitter charged the electricity became more violent and the orb began to glow brighter. Then, the electricity poured into the spire, and an orange ball began to form at the bulb. The ball continued to grow until it was ten times the bulb's size.

"All set!" someone shouted in finality.

"Fire!" Dr. Hikari ordered, and the orb shot upwards at high speed. Then the view screen changed to a view of Den Area 1. When the orange orb landed in the middle of Den Area 1, an orange ring erupted and expanded throughout the area , leaving an orange wake. Within the wake were Zeta viruses, appearing to have seizures before being deleted. After a minute or two the wake subsided as the area returned to normal. Not one virus remained.

"Whoa…" Zeke gawked, "that was… like testing the atomic bomb…" Dr. Hikari then turned to Zeke.

"Thank you for coming Zeke," Dr. Hikari thanked Zeke.

"Not a problem Dr. Hikari, now I shall take my leave," Zeke said as he got up and left SciLab. "My mind has just been blown…" he said still gawking at the new weapon Dr. Hikari and his team had made, "No ProgramAdvance I know can have that kind of power…" He continued to walk to Lan's house, taking out his PET while doing so. "Zero…"

"I know, Zeke…" Zero said, very much aware of what Zeke was thinking, "This'll be over soon…"

[Later…]

Zeke was relaxing on his bed, more like dozing off, when his PET bleeped.

"Zeke!" Zero called out to him, "It's Bass and Zeta! Their battle's getting close to SciLab! And Bass is having trouble!"

"Huh?!" Zeke said, startled, "It is time…then…" Zero nodded.

"Let's go, and we better grab Lan." Zeke did so, yanking him away from his precious bed.

"Aww, what?!" Lan groaned in extreme disgust.

"Lan, being late for school is one thing, but this is different!" Megaman scolded. After some deliberation, Lan and Zeke finally left for SciLab, to await, the final battle.

[SciLab]

Upon arrival, the team was obviously frantically scrambling to make last-minute adjustments and improvements to the weapon due to the urgency of Bass and Zeta's battle.

"Lan! Zeke!" Dr. Hikari exclaimed, obviously under extreme stress, "Bass and Zeta are not far from SciLab's server, we're trying to get Bass out of the way of the blast."

"I doubt if that's working," Lan mused, "it'd take quite a bit of convincing."

"We're still trying," Dr. Hikari said firmly, "Bass will want to get out of the way knowing the power of our weapon."

[Cyberworld]

The conversation between Bass and the SciLab team quickly turned sour. Bass was indeed having a hard time fighting Zeta at this point due to having fought him for a long time, for at least several weeks.

_Grrah…_ Bass thought with fatigue and disdain as his fight with Zeta continued, _this one is strong…perhaps I should back off for now… _His tone quickly changes to realization and affirmation,_ yes, I think doing that will work out much better than what I originally intended…_ With that, Bass evaded a SonicSword attack frenzy from Zeta and left the area.

_Huh…?_ Zeta thought, caught off-guard, _What was that all about?_ He didn't have time to think, as an orange beam shot down from above behind the compilation of DarkPower, which emitted a powerful orange wave that filled the area, catching Zeta within it. Zeta screamed in sheer agony, for what would be instant deletion for normal Navis, was utter torture for someone like Zeta. He felt as if he was being deleted over and over and over again, constantly without it actually happening. His deep violet crystal developed brighter shading at a snail's pace during the effect. After it finally stopped, which was several minutes, Zeta had a long moment of disorientation when familiar crimson and cobalt figures appeared.

"Zeta!" the cobalt figure shouted and brandished an arm cannon, "Time for you to go, for good!" Zeta scoffed at this, despite his weakened state. Even being weakened, Zeta thought that he was more than adequate in taking the two figures down.

"We'll take him together, Megaman," the crimson figure said calmly but firmly, bracing for combat.

"Right, Zero…" Megaman said in agreement and popped into stance. Zeta laughed, not allowing his fatigue and agony to faze him.

"Then come, you fools!" Zeta challenged haughtily, "Come to your deletion!" He laughed boisterously and arrogantly as he brandished his ZetaSword.

* * *

Like? Yes, epic build up, and I will ensure to not disappoint with such a build up! When will it come out? I don't know, because I'm awfully busy. I do know for a fact how this will end up. Just throwing that out there. I really don't need to say this, but for kicks and giggles... Up next: The final battle! Zero and Megaman VS Zeta!


	10. Chapter 10

Well dang, this took a while. Sorry about the insane delay. I can't even blame anything else other than myself and my laziness for this. But, it's here now so be glad! But, first things first...

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! **(While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

Now then, the long-awaited thrilling conclusion!

* * *

The battle exploded right at the start, with Zero and Zeta immediately clashing with their swords and engaging in a duel, with purple and green weaves of energy colliding with one another. Megaman struggled to resolve to shoot into the fray, afraid of hitting his ally in the process.

"C'mon Megaman!" Lan shouted in disdain, "Shoot!" Megaman's arm trembled with fear.

"But Lan," Megaman quaked fearfully, "I don't want to shoot Zero…"

"Megaman, don't worry about it!" Zeke shouted, half in irritation and half in impatience, "Do the best you can! We won't hold it against you." Megaman perked up, then sighed.

"Alright…" Megaman sighed, then refocused to take on the task at hand. He began by blasting orange energy packets into the fray with his MegaBuster. Zero, expecting the assault, spun his blade so the blasts hit his blade and not he himself. Zeta, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He got hit several times, and each time Zero took the advantage to score free blows. This went on for a minute or so, until Zeta figured out what was going on, and spun out of the way of a slash and surprisingly a blast as well, and jumped at Megaman with such speed, neither Megaman nor his NetOp could react to Zeta's attack: a charged sword slam right on Megaman's helmet. The attack had such a force that it drove Megaman into the floor, creating a crater his size swallowing him in it.

"Megaman!" Lan shouted for his Navi in deep concern. Zeta turned to parry a flurry of sword strikes from an irate Zero. "Okay, no more screwing around! M-Cannon! BattleChip in! Download!" Lan growled in anger and slapped in an M-Cannon BattleChip into his PET to send it to Megaman. Megaman's right arm formed into the red and yellow cannon, and Megaman instinctively got up, rather slowly, and sluggishly aimed at Zeta, who was in a sword lock with Zero, with Zeta's back to Megaman. Megaman seized the advantage and blasted Zeta several times with yellow bolts of energy. Zeta screamed in pain of the bolts striking him, while Zero took his moment of slight weakness and slashed at him in a powerful flurry of attacks, sending him to the side. Zero rushed to Megaman's side in concern.

"You alright?" Zero asked gruffly and shortly, putting his hand on Megaman's shoulder. Megaman heaved.

"Yeah…just didn't expect that…" he wheezed. At that moment, their crests began to glow, and a beam of light connected the two.

"Huh?!" both Lan and Zeke gawked, shocked at what was happening, but for different reasons.

"Is that…" Lan continued, "Double Soul?!" The moment was cut short when a bolt appeared between the two and Megaman turned away, his crest sparking with energy and he himself crying in pain.

In the background, Dr. Hikari was heard saying, "Megaman's DoubleSoul ability appears to want to assimilate new data that it can't support right now."

"Well, we'll just have to work around it then!" Lan said, determined as Zeta approached the Navi duo. "Megaman! Let's try something! DoubleSoul! Guts Soul chip in! Download!" And with that, Lan slammed the Guts Soul chip into his PET.

"Zero! Activating FormPower! Elec Form!" Zeke said complementary to Lan's call. _Glad I was able to reprogram the PET to set FormPower built-in with Dr. Hikari's help, eliminating the need for the chip… _Megaman quickly transformed into yellow and red armor, appearing like his friend Gutsman, but same physique as Megaman himself. Zero's armor turned yellow, his crystal and blade turning a deep blue and his ZeroSword became a LongSword version. Zeta was caught off-guard by the transformation, and was frozen by the sight, and could not defend himself from Megaman's new strong punches. Zero followed up by jumping over Megaman and delivering a strong electric slashes. Zeta screamed, defenseless against the sudden assault of strong attacks.

However, Zeta was able to recover from such an assault, and hatched his own. He charged his blade contemptuously, his crystal and eyes glowing purple with the blade, and the rest of his body turned pitch black, and charged at his opponents with such speed as if using an Area Steal or StepSword BattleChip, and slashed furiously at his opponents, causing a powerful shockwave that consisted of three main offshoots from the slash, sending his opponents flying, and cancelling their transformations. Zeta then laughed evilly as his body returned to its regular color scheme.

"Hah!" Zeta scoffed, "So, this is the best cyberspace has to offer for defense…pathetic!" Megaman and Zero slowly got up, severely shaken from the attack, Megaman more so and showing obvious signs of heavy damage.

"Megaman!" Lan shouted in deep concern, "You have to jack out!"

"And leave Zero to fend…for himself?" Megaman wheezed.

"It's better than losing a friend," Zero said firmly, "Save yourself." Megaman reluctantly complied and jacked out of the system. Zeta chuckled sinisterly.

"Now it's only you and me…weakling…" Zeta said with contempt dripping from his words.

"No…" Zero corrected coldly, with a steady, disgusted, and equally as cold glare, "It's just me…and the shadow of my past…" Zero dashed at him suddenly, with an icy death glare, as he raised his arms for an attack. As if on cue, Zeke immediately downloaded to Zero a FireBlade and AquaBlade BattleChips, so that Zeta was nearly caught off-guard by the sudden duel-wielding attacks, which Zero had expected. Swordplay ensued like the NetOps have never seen, as Zero attempted to gain the upper hand through sheer speed. Much to his dismay, however, his attacks got caught in a sword lock. One in which, if Zero gave, he would be overcome by an overhead strike; if he tried to move it in a direction where he could escape, Zeta would compensate for the move and keep the lock exactly where it is. The stakes raise even more once Zeta's black aura returned, drenching his entire body, while his crystal, eyes, and sword gave of a venomous, murderous, and amethyst glow.

"You should not have charged at me like that," Zeta coolly ridiculed his doppelganger, "Now you're trapped, and you can't get out." Zero trembled both in fear and in anger that he had allowed himself to fall into such a trap. "Therefore," Zeta continued, "I'll finish you now, and then I shall become a NetGod!" He laughed insanely as he prepared to unleash the same attack that forced Megaman to jack out. Zero's memories flooded into his mind, feeling himself fall into the murky depths of helplessness, and uselessness. It seemed as if he could not outrun his origins, an evil Darkloid bent on destruction. This effectively meant that all of what Iris did to get Zero out of that lifestyle, was for naught. He wanted to cry, as a fear set in that he'll never see Iris again, whom he had fought so hard for to see again. Zeta began to initiate the attack, by turning the orientation of his blade, in respect to Zero's, to horizontal, and began the slash to delete .

"_**IRIS!**_" he suddenly bellowed out a singular, heartfelt, desperate, sob, and at the same time, a bright white light enveloped him, causing Zeta's attack to be split into two large jets of destructive energy.

"H-Huh?!" Zeke stammered, as he stared in awe of what he was seeing on the screen of his PET, "_another_ FormPower?!" he gasped as he read what was on his screen, and read it, "…_OriginForm?!_" When the energy faded, Zero's appearance shocked everyone except Zeta. If there was a term called 'light shadow', Zero's appearance would describe it perfectly, as his body was a much more brighter toned version of Zeta's, with his yellow accentuations now white, like Zeta's accentuations. The stark difference between the two was that now Zero's crystal, eyes, and sword all became a bright, valiant, opal blue. Zeta grimaced at what he was looking at as the effects of his attack wore off from his body.

"What's with you?! You should be deleted and gone!" he protested, but was silenced with the pointing of Zero's blade at him.

"I won't be deleted that easily," Zero declared, his words carried with arctic conviction, "If you deleted me here, everything that I, no, Iris had done to get me to this point would have meant nothing. I cannot allow that to happen! Neither can I allow myself to be deleted before I reunite with her!"

"Such meaningless words…come at me then!" Zeta challenged. Zero just tightened his brows.

"You didn't even have to tell me once," he said flatly, as he dashed at him once more, and engaged swordplay that matched Zeta's every move. Quickly losing patience, Zeta jumps back and prepares his ProgramAdance-tier attack once more. Zero, however, had other ideas. As soon as the dark doppelganger launched his attack, Zeke downloaded an AreaSteal BattleChip to Zero as if their minds were in sync, knowing exactly what the Navi needed to succeed, in that precise instant. Zeta was astonished that his target was gone, as the black aura faded from him.

"You coward! Where did you go?!" he bellowed, seething with impatience, rage, and fatigue. He wanted this to be over, and fast. Now since he's spending more energy than anticipated. Then, he notices a faint hum of something being charged, one prelude to an attack. A cold, gruff voice chimes behind him.

"I feel sorry about your cooldown phase," Zeta's opponent stated and slammed Zeta with a charged saber attack with the force equal that of a 120 kilogram weighted hammer, which sends Zeta crashing into a nearby wall. Zeta comes out battered and miffed, with data disintegrating from his body.

"You will…be deleted…" he wheezed, "I can still—" he was cut off by a familiar black armored fist that punched through the crest on his chest, causing him to scream from the utter shock that the pain brought. A dark laughter was heard from behind Zeta.

"I did say…that I had my own reasons for fighting…" the familiar yet mysterious being said darkly and mischievously as the arm was brought up to Zeta's face, grabbing the lightening crystal and began a horrifying process that only one Navi would be capable of. The crystal glowed yellow as the data breaking off of Zeta turned yellow and started to swirl into the being's hand. Zero just watched, petrified at what was taking place, as from his doppelganger's hands and feet, began to turn into a sifting cloud of yellow to be absorbed data, Zeta screaming at the top of his voice that would allow, as his body was absorbed into the hand of his deleter. When Zeta had completed his disintegration and absorption into the mysterious hand, the identity was revealed.

"_Bass?!_" Zero shouted in awe and in fear as he readied his blade, still in his OriginForm. Bass, still sans cloak, simply laughed and stood to his full height, lowering his arm. "What's the meaning of this?!"

"It is true that I wanted to save the cyberworld from that lunatic," Bass replied, "after all, if this were to go, so would I. It was for my self-defense, but then I saw how powerful he was, and I am an opportunist. By absorbing his power…" a dark aura began to surround him, "…I am able to become even stronger…a being even Megaman can't defeat!" Bass laughed as he made a portal for him to jump through.

"Wait!" Zero called to him, but it was useless. Bass was gone, along with his weakened doppelganger. In the real world, the NetOps and scientist both were utterly shocked and confused at the same time about what had just transpired.

"Well… At least it's over…I think…" Lan managed to mumble.

"…Why do you act like this is nothing new?" Zeke forced his words out of his mouth, shocked, confused, horrified, and a mix of other emotions fired with his words.

"Call it…" Lan answered, "Bass's special ability… He's able to absorb viruses and Navis alike…"

"I wonder if he can handle such an amount of DarkPower…" Zeke mumbled to himself.

"I wouldn't worry about him," Lan said deceptively cheerfully, "he tends to stay quiet for the most part." _Though, Megaman and I would have to have a serious overhaul in order to keep pace with what we just saw…_

"Well, at least the immediate threat is gone…" Zeke stated to himself, more so to convince himself than anyone else in the room, "Jack out, Zero." He heard an "Understood" from his PET as Zero jacked out of the system, returning to his normal color scheme. Just then, Lan's PET bleeped loudly, with an incoming call from a certain stripe-haired rival. Lan quickly answers the call.

"Yeah?" was all he could get in before he was cut off.

"We have contact," was all that was said before the call was discontinued. Those words held weight for Zeke, he nearly froze up as Lan turned to his father, had strangely been silent for the entire time.

"Lan, send Zeke Chaud's location, I'd like for you and Megaman to stay here. I want to take a look at him, and try to see what his DoubleSoul program wanted to assimilate," the scientist instructed.

"Right, Dad," Lan complied and sent Zeke the location and directions via E-mail, "There you go Zeke. Get going!"

"R-Right…" Zeke choked and dashed off in a huge hurry, not wanting to waste any time, no longer willing to sit still and keep the one he loved waiting any longer.

When he reached Chaud at some sort of airport, he realized that no one other than Chaud was there. He began to second guess if Chaud really meant what he said.

"Where's Lan?" the stoic NetBattler asked sharply.

"He's being detained with Dr. Hikari…" Zeke managed a sophisticated reply, "Megaman sustained heavy damage due to an anomaly with his DoubleSoul program…" He wanted to demand bitterly where Irene was, but he hesitated, the frigid look in his acquaintance's eyes told him that he already knew.

"I see," Chaud said, understanding Zeke's words, and motioned to someone behind him to come forward. It was the blond haired guy in the picture, Alex, except looking less like he was tossed into a gutter. As soon as Alex arrived, Chaud left.

"Hey man, long time no see!" the man greeted his old friend cheerfully, though like Lan earlier, Alex seemed to be trying to hide depression in his voice.

"Yo," Zeke replied, and grabbed his hand in a strong handshake, "We need to hang out more." Alex simply laughed the comment off.

"I know who you wanna see," Alex admitted with resignation to Zeke's desires, and said, "C'mon, you can come out now." On cue, the same purple clad girl from Zeke's pictures, also cleaned up, ran up to him. She put her hands behind her back, and smiled cutely at him.

"Hey Zeke…" she said, with unspeakable relief in her voice, which caused Zeke's eyes to water and his face to turn pink, "it's been a while…hasn't it?"

* * *

Aww! Check that out! Someone demanded to see Irene, so I made this a bit longer to include such a scene to end it off. Ain't this just picture perfect? Am I done? NO! Not quite, but this is where the story ends, buuut... Up next: Epilogue! Reunions, confessions, and double-dating!


End file.
